Embroidery: Think outside the box, design what you see…

EMBROIDERY INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEKEND:

In our classes and in any video that I produce, I am forever saying THINK OUTSIDE THE EMBROIDERY BOX. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to stick to all of the rules or traditions with embroidery, you can think or “see” embroidery differently and come up with designs that are completely original and one of a kind.

Don and I work together ever day, but we see embroidery completely differently! When we both look at a jpeg or a vector design, we see different results in embroidery. We both think outside the box, just maybe on other sides of the box. We both do amazing embroidery, but we create completely differently. Don has an amazing eye for details, and I see thinks in a more artistic fashion, if that makes any sense. I see bright colors and flowing stitches and everything fancy. We did an experiment once – a patch customer didn’t exactly know what he wanted from his design. Don took the picture and worked on it and so did I – the exact same picture – and we came up with completely different custom patch results!! We had a good laugh over that one – and of course we let the customer decide which one he liked best. The customer said it was very difficult to decide – they were both good, and both different.

So yes, think outside the embroidery box. If you have a picture that you really like, what can you do with it? You can use it as a backdrop for something interesting, you can take elements out of the picture, you can take the “feeling” of the picture and make a whispy – artsy design – or you can add all those elements together and come up with something interesting and different.

Don loves working with redwork and blackwork designs- it seems to be his thing. And when he looks at a design, he can “pull out” the important parts of the design to make into redwork – not all of the elements of course, but just the ones that will look good. He took a picture of our friend and his motorcycle and turned it into an embroidery design – and all of the details are in the right place. We sent a picture of the design to a few of our friends just to test – and they were able to recognize the person in the design – I would say that is the right amount of detail in a design.

So yes, think outside the embroidery box. When we are outside relaxing, or walking around – we can see embroidery design elements everywhere we go – a flower, some grass, our gardens, the cute weenie dogs we have – anything! Try it – you might be surprised at what you can come up with. Snap a picture with your phone – then you have that picture to bring into your embroidery. It doesn’t matter what embroidery program you are using, the results will be the same: a one of a kind embroidery design.

One thought on “Embroidery: Think outside the box, design what you see…”

This is a cool way to create new designs, I like your suggestion about taking pictures of things and turning them into designs. I have wanted to try something a little more difficult, but all of the patterns that I find are pretty easy for me. Thanks to your helpful article I think I will be able to create my own challenging design!